In Sri Lanka, mandate for continuing change

If more emphasis was needed from the Sri Lankans to underline that they wanted change in the country, the results of the November 14 parliamentary elections provided it in ample measure.

- Amit Baruah

After electing the candidate of the National People's Power (NPP) Anura Kumara Dissanayake as President on September 23, the people spoke again on November 14 by presenting a two-thirds majority and 159 seats to the NPP.

The massive mandate provided to the NPP is the largest to any political formation since Sri Lanka adopted the proportional representation system under its 1978 Constitution. The vote also torpedoed the decades-old divisions between the Tamils and Sinhalese as well as the Muslims and the Sinhalese, burying the many ghosts generated by a 26-year-old war unleashed by the Tamil Tigers.

For the first time in living memory, many Tamils and Muslims trusted their future to a majority Sinhala party—the NPP—to represent their interests in both parliament and government. Such a prospect was not considered to be in the realm of the possible even when Dissanayake was elected President less than two months earlier.

In September's presidential poll, Dissanayake's support from the north and east was insignificant but the story changed in November—the NPP won 12 out of 28 seats in the electoral districts of Jaffna, Vanni, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. It pushed the Tamil nationalist party, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, down to eight seats.